Huanan Coal Railway
December 2006 and April 2005

The description below follows the sections
on a double Huanan DVD I have just finished. For details of how to purchase
this DVD, click here.

Overview

The Huanan Coal Railway is based on
the stub of a former logging system. (See Steam in Northern China, October 2005
at http://www.farrail.net/ for a map showing
the full extent of the system.) The line is still owned by the Forestry Bureau
and I was told that coal is primarily used to provide heating for Forestry Bureau
offices and factories. The Bureau is keen to protect its access rights to the
land it owns distant from Huanan and seems to be concerned that if it closes
the line, it will lose the linear strip giving it access to the countryside.
This was the reason given in 2005 for tree-planting between Huanan and Xiahua.
The line is notorious for its long annual closure from a date (usually in January)
when, it seems, it has met its coal quota for the year to a date in March or
April when the miners return from their winter break and coal traffic resumes.
In 2006-7, this break started on 25 December (much earlier than usual) because
the local government (based in Jiamusi) had ordered the mines closed so there
would be no more accidents prior to Chinese New Year. As I write this (February
2007), the local government would prefer the mines to stay closed permanently
while the mine owners and workers wish to resume their dangerous business. It
seems likely that the mines (and the railway) will reopen in spring 2007 but
long-term both central and local government will require the mines to close
permanently. That will mean the end of the railway. The Forestry Bureau could
also decide to close the railway even if the mines stay open. There is a bad
road from Huanan which is already used to move coal from Hongguang and which
I used in 2007 to find the end of the line and the coal mines.

There is a public railbus which operates
whether the coal traffic is moving or not. However, this January, with no coal
traffic, the railbus was suspended due to snow. The railbus provides vital access
to the community at Lixin (the only other access being by motorcycle, animal,
on foot or tracked vehicle) and alternative access to the other places along
the line. From Hongguang, there is otherwise an early morning bus out (to Huanan)
with an evening return. The railbus provides a late morning arrival and a lunchtime
return to Huanan to complement this. Various foreigners know to their cost that
the railbus operates a mercenary 'rip off' dual pricing system design to part
foreigners from as much of their yuan as possible. Currently, the going rate
is ¥100 each way with slightly cheaper rip offs for Tuoyaozi to Lixin and
other part journeys.

Huanan - Xiahua

Huanan has the depot, workshops and
transfer yard with China Rail. When I visited in 2005, the depot (or more accurately,
the stabling point) was on a spur line close to the station and easily accessible.
However, by 2006 this had moved deep inside the gated and secure works complex
and is inaccessible unless you have chartered a train on the line. The management
are generally unfriendly to foreign visitors who aren't giving them large sums
of money but it is likely that the move was not purely to annoy gricers. The
railbus still stables on the spur and uses the turntable to leave its shed and
turn before its next run.

In 2005, I concentrated on getting
good lineside picture in the scenic section between Tuaoyaozi and Lixin. As
a result, by the time I was reasonably satisfied with this footage, the railway
was hit by a shut down at the coalmines due to a planned power cut (to allow
the local power station to carry out necessary repairs at the end of winter).
Coal trains ceased but the railway started a tree planting campaign between
Huanan and Xiahua which allowed me to get a few shots of steam on this section.
The purpose behind this exercise was, so I was told, to help ensure that the
Forestry Bureau's rights to the line and a strip either side would be defined
and would not be lost if the railway closed. On my return in 2006, there was
absolutely no sign of any of the trees I saw being planted and it looks as if
the local farmers have removed them in order to extend their fields back to
the lineside. The exercise appears to have been futile.

As well as observing the planting specials,
I also had a quick look at the closed station at Dajiugang (km 12.5). The line
is now signalled to allow trains to pass at Huanan, Xiahua and Lixin only. Dajiugang,
Tuoyaozi and Hongguang have no signalling facilities, so 2 trains cannot be
allowed to proceed and pass at these places. Lixin to Hongguang and return is
worked as one section and only one train can be in this section at one time.
The long sections can sometimes lead to delays for the railbus if a coal train
is still in one of these sections.

Xiahua - Tuoyaozi

On arrival at Xiahua, a train of empties
will normally wait for a train of fulls to arrive (or vice versa). It will then
proceed to Lixin. The train of fulls will proceed to Huanan. However, as the
locos can haul far more wagons (empty or full) on the flat section from Xiahua
to Huanan, there are occasional variations in this pattern when two trains of
fulls may be combined and one loco may return with empties to Lixin. This variation
is not fully understood and more information would be welcomed. It may happen
when the pattern has been disrupted by loco failure or stoppage.

There is a short climb from Xiahua
to Tuoyaozi. The line is no longer roadside and the road and rail cross at the
entrance to Tuoyaozi at the summit of this climb. The train then runs down into
Tuoyaozi where it may stop for fire cleaning before attacking the climb to the
Summit. When fulls arrive in Tuoyaozi, they have their brakes pinned down. Trains
always stop to unpin the brakes.

Tuoyaozi is backed by a hill to the
north which allows a good vantage of the descending full trains.

There are at least 2 places to stay
in Touyaozi which have been used in the past by foreign enthusiasts. One is
the permanent way gang master's house which is just by the disused crossing
loop. The other is in the local bath house.

Tuoyaozi - Summit

The line starts to climb up a long
bank before reaching a horseshoe curve. Above this curve is a further horseshoe
curve by a Permanent Way hut and a further curve just above the first horseshoe.
From there is a final straightish bank to the summit.

Motor cycles use the path beside the
track to get to the first horseshoe and are then able to cut off to the curve
above. Anyone photographing at the first horseshoe can also scramble up the
slope and with luck get a second shot on the upper level.

From April to late August, the forest
area is full of air-borne ticks which carry Japanese Encephalitis. Further visitors
are advised to visit earlier or later in the year or, if they are there in the
tick season, to be very careful to check for ticks at the end of the day. I
found about 3 in the time I was there. In all cases, they had not yet found
a soft spot on my flesh to burrow in. Locals at risk have an annual injection
to ward against the infection. You have been warned.

Lixin - Summit

On the Lixin side, the loaded trains
need a banker to get to the summit. The banker is attached to the train and
the train halts at the summit for the banker to be disconnected and to pin down
the breaks for the descent. There are few good positions to photographed these
banked trains. The best positions are probably leaving Lixin.

This area shows signs of gold working
which have replaced forestry as the way for locals to get rich. Gold fever can
have a funny effect on an area and this may partly explain the way the area
has turned less friendly to foreigners unless they are willing to hand over
large sums for what should be either free or inexpensive activities. The current
extortion racket involves the local forest owners (not the Forestry Bureau)
who feel that foreigners should pay a fee to enter the area beyond Tuoyaozi.
This started in 2006.

Lixin Station

Empty trains wait here for a full train
from Hongguang. The loco turns on the triangle and then banks the full train
to the Summit. It then continues to Hongguang tender first as there are no turning
facilities there. Locos on full trains come of the train and service before
attacking the bank.

The railbus also turns at Lixin on
the outward journey and continues in reverse to Hongguang.

Normally the railbus is given priority
and a train of empties will not be allowed to proceed to Hongguang if the railbus
is due. Nor will a loaded train be allowed to climb the bank if the railbus
is expected in Xiahua. However, although the railbus operates to a rough schedule,
the coal trains only operate to an untimetabled sequence using 3 locos and this
rule is sometimes broken and can lead to late-running of the railbus. What circumstances
cause this to happen are not known but it is most likely to be if the railbus
is already running late.

Hongguang - Lixin

It's uphill from Honguang with the
fulls but as this is only one loco, the grade is not severe and this is the
most remote section, very few people photograph this section. My video clips
are taken within 10 minutes of Lixin. When the empties arrive at Hongguang,
it appears that the loco pushes the wagons into the loading siding where they
are filled using a JCB-type tractor with a bucket. The loads are then removed
from the siding and propelled a short distance to where the loco can run round
and head for Lixin. There are 4-5 small coalmines in this area that provide
the coal for the railway to carry. They are all about 2 km from the loading
dock on poor roads.

Banking in the Rain

The weather wasn't wonder in April
2005 and nor was spring as advanced as I had expected. You will see snow on
the ground in some scenes and there was occasional rain. This can lead to some
very atmospheric shots.

Riding the Railbus

The railbus operates a rough daily
schedule leaving Huanan at 0800, arriving at Hongguang around 1000 and leaving
there at 1200 for the return. Arrival back in Huanan is around 1400. However,
as this is a single track railway with passing loops and an intensive coal service,
this schedule is subkect to delays. I videod the line from the front of the
railbus next to the driver in December 2006 a few days after the coal traffic
had ceased on local-government orders. The railbus continued to operate until
snow on the hilly section forced operation to be suspended. It may still be
suspended as I write this. It was below freezing and the inside of the windscreen
rapidly frosted over. Using the credit card scraper trick, I eventually cleared
a reasonable section of the windscreen and good views are had in both directions.
Due to the lack of turning facilities at Hongguang, the railbus needs to run
in reverse in one direction and it turns at Lixin on the way out and runs backwards
to the end of the line. The railbus is often known as the rip-off railbus and
(with railway management encouragement), the railbus operators (father and son)
take pleasure in extracting ¥100 from each foreigner for each leg of a full
journey along the line. (Your purchase of a copy of the DVD will help me recover
from this attack on my life savings!)